Lobbying

Lobbying refers to attempts to influence policy decisions made by elected officials. The term originated in the political systems of the United States and United Kingdom during the 19th century when efforts to influence the votes of lawmakers were conducted in the entrance hall (or “lobby”) of parliamentary chambers. In business, lobbying is an example of a nonmar-ket strategy. While market strategies involve decisions such as product positioning and pricing, nonmarket strategies are actions taken by individuals, firms, or special interest groups to influence the political, regulatory, and social environments in which they operate. Some companies and industries have found that lobbying is a crucial aspect of their business, and recent studies have shown that lobbying can effectively influence policy outcomes.

Different Types of Lobbyists

Different kinds of business actors lobby political decision makers. Individual businessmen and women, for example, can be important contacts for elected officials. In France, leading business and political figures commonly make informal contacts with each other during their studies at elite graduate schools. Later in life, business leaders can use these contacts to voice their policy preferences to government and administrative representatives.

Individual firms—especially large ones—can also participate in lobbying and public policy advocacy. Google provides a case in point: with a staff of 12 lobbyists including former communications directors, speechwriters, and policy advisers of the Clinton administration, Google has built a substantial presence in Washington.

If managers lack the time, resources, or contacts to influence public policy decisions themselves, they may delegate the task to an outside lobbyist. For instance, when it made its controversial bid to take over the U.S. petroleum company Unocal in 2005, the China National Offshore Company hired the services of the Washington-based lobbying firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to establish relationships and set up meetings with lawmakers.

In some cases, individual companies may feel they have a better chance to influence policy if they lobby as part of a wider group: In this instance, they may join professional associations. Germany, for example, has a dense network of special interest groups that are organized around specific industrial sectors (such as the German Association of the Automotive Industry), products (including the Association of Cigarette Manufacturers), or markets (such as the Federal Association of Exporting Companies). These groups maintain political offices in Berlin, establish strong connections with officials in the powerful Economics Ministry, and use these to influence policy so that it meets their members' specific requirements.

When attempting to influence general laws, trade associations and individual companies may form nationwide employers' associations. One such example is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose 300 policy experts, lawyers, and communicators represent the interests of over three million businesses of all sizes and sectors, hundreds of trade associations, thousands of local Chambers, and more than a hundred American [Page 1019]Chambers of Commerce around the world. In the UK, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) promotes the general interests of British business by contributing to debates on over 80 policy issues.

As business has become increasingly globalized, supranational associations have emerged to represent the interests of the business community above the nation-state level. For example, with the increasing number of economic directives introduced by the European Commission, it is estimated that 15,000 business lobbyists are now active in Brussels. Some, such as BusinessEurope and the European Round-table of Industrialists, represent private employers at the interprofessional level. Others, including the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations (COPA), represent the interests of specific industries.

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